Technical Field
The present invention relates to automatic travel control for a vehicle.
Related Art
With improvement of automatic cruising techniques, lane keeping techniques, or the like, a technique for having a vehicle automatically travel without requiring a driver's intervention is proceeding toward practical use. In such automatic travel control, safety is required to be more enhanced in preparation for the occurrence of any abnormality.
JP-A-2011-240816 discloses a configuration for emergency stopping of a vehicle when it is determined that the vehicle is required to be immediately stopped due to the occurrence of abnormality. In this case, the vehicle is stopped according to a control principle which is uniquely determined on the basis of the usable parts, which are specific parts other than the part suffering from abnormality, and on the basis of a preset emergency stop mode.
However, taking account of the possible proliferation of completely automatic travel control that is not in need of a licensed driver, some countermeasures are required to be taken against the case, for example, where the occupants are those who are not able to drive the vehicle, such as aged persons or disabled persons. In such a case, only the emergency stop of the vehicle is not sufficient for ensuring safety, but the vehicle has to be safely moved to a place, such as outside the road.